This is For You

This is for the artists, writers and creative thinkers of color.
For discussions, ideas and thoughts with too much NUANCE and COMPLEXITY to fit into the neat confines of clickbait social justice.
For work that doesn’t fit into respectability politics, or cater to the notion that we exist only in relation to those in positions of power.

Right now we face a future with an American President-Elect that engages in violent, racist and misogynistic rhetoric, as well as increasing xenophobic sentiments in Europe and Britain. For many of us, these events have just served as a widespread validation of issues that have been our reality for years.
As creative individuals, we tease our experiences into creative impulses. Our work is a product of our experiences. We must remember that in the face of a world that is validating hate, we need to make space to validate and celebrate our own artistic work. That’s why for our first Happening at NUANCE we simply asked artists to send in the best of what they had. This is an underscore of your importance as creators.

It’s easy to dismiss idealism for naivety. But we can look towards an informed idealism. Many artists of color have been left out of the canon of art history, and world focus has stayed oriented to the Western experience for a long time. We hope to take our reality and channel it into energy and organization. With NUANCE, we aim to claim space for artists of color to help us create, connect, share and appreciate our work. We hold on to the idea that if we continue creating and uplifting our art, we can form a community of positive resistance against a hateful narrative.

Thank you to our contributing artists for this Happening: Kristin Chang ‘20, Nja Batiste ‘18, Richard Perez ‘17, Ami Glazer ‘18, Ellie Hwa Brumbaum ‘17, Jack Chu '17, Jordan Foster ‘20, and Jones Bealum ‘20.

Best,
Mwinga Sinjela and Nabila Wirakusumah
NUANCE Founders